Mark Solms vs Nick Humphrey live debate: can we make AIs sentient — and should we?
cccalum · x · 2026-11-04
To mark the publication of "Perspectives on Machine Consciousness", Conscium hosts a live webinar debate: "Can We Make AIs Sentient – and Should We?"
- Mark Solms (University of Cape Town): consciousness is rooted in feeling generated deep in the brainstem; he's building artificial agents driven by homeostatic needs via Friston's free energy principle, and takes seriously the moral questions their success would raise.
- Nick Humphrey (Cambridge): puts feeling above thinking too, but sees phenomenal consciousness as cortical, arriving late in evolution and restricted to social animals needing a sense of self.
Tuesday 3 November, 6:15 PM GMT, 45 minutes, registration open.
Related event: Solms vs. Humphrey Debate: Can and Should AI Be Sentient(2 posts)→
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